Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: There are going to be things in your life where you just can't figure it out. That's why I'm so glad God has given us his word so that when we hit seasons of confusion, we have a sure word from God. And your Bible will help you understand that if you are going through such a season where God is confusing you, it'll help you know you are not by yourself.

Guest (Male): Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. That's Psalm 30, verse five. And this is Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard. Have you ever been confused by what God is allowing to take place in your life? You're not alone.

The good news is the Lord has not given you a spirit of fear or confusion, but of love, power, and a sound mind. He's also given you his word. Before we get started with today's message, let me invite you to stop by pastorpaul.net when you have some time. That's where you can listen to any of our recent messages on demand, including today's. That's pastorpaul.net. Now, let's get going with today's Destined for Victory message, When God Confuses You.

Paul Sheppard: John chapter 11. Go with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 11. A very familiar passage and very familiar story. I've certainly spoken to it and about it on a few different occasions over the years, but I want to focus on it today as I believe the Lord has a word that he really wants to speak into the lives of many of us.

John chapter 11, beginning with verse one. Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."

When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

I want to talk to you about a scenario that some of us who have walked with Christ for some years have experienced once or more in our walk with the Lord. Perhaps some are experiencing it right now. And if you haven't experienced it and aren't experiencing it right now, I'd suggest that you tuck this word away in your heart anyhow because, like my grandma said, "if you haven't gone through some things, just keep on living." And so it is worth it to hide the word in our hearts that we might not sin against God.

The scenario I'm speaking of is a scenario where you hit a season, you hit a time, you hit a crisis in your life where the Lord confuses you. Where what God is doing or what God is allowing in your life just doesn't make sense to you. You think, "God, I don't believe what you're allowing to happen." I've gone through seasons where I thought I have to be on Divine Candid Camera. There must be some trick to this. There must be something where God's going to jump out and say, "Psyche!" because I don't believe what I'm going through.

We who are people of faith, that's why the Bible says you got to walk by faith and not by sight, because there are going to be things in your life where you just can't figure it out for anything. That's why I'm so glad God has given us his word. The word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. God has inspired this book, your Bible, as the owner's manual for living so that when we hit seasons of confusion, we have a sure word from God.

And your Bible will help you understand that if you are going through such a season where God is confusing you, it'll help you know you are not by yourself. That throughout redemptive history, people who loved God, who walked with God, have arrived at those places, arrived at those seasons, those challenges, those crises, where they said, "Lord, I don't get it. I'm totally confused."

There are so many examples, case studies in your Bible. There's just one that I want to point out to you before we begin to take a closer look at John 11. That's found in the book of Psalms, Psalm 73. This is a Psalm that was written by a man named Asaph. Not all of the Psalms were written by David, in case you're not aware of that. And one of the other Psalmists was a man named Asaph.

And in Psalm 73, he begins to share his testimony. He starts out on a high note. He says, "Surely God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart." And then he walks us through a season where he didn't know what was going on in and around him. He says in verse two, "But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold."

You ever been there? Where your feet almost slipped? Where you nearly lost your foothold? But listen, when you read your Bible, you got to find the operative words in each verse. There are two operative words in that verse. One of them is "almost" and the other one is "nearly." What that shows you is when you go through a season like Asaph is talking about where he said, "If it weren't for the Lord, I would have gone down, the confusion and the trial would have overwhelmed me."

But he said it almost happened, it nearly happened because God has a way. We often talk about holding on to God's unchanging hand, and I know what we mean when we say that. And there are ways in which we truly want to be intentional about abiding in him and letting his word abide in us, and being intentional about putting our trust in the Lord.

But if the truth be known, you go through seasons where it's not so much your holding on to God as he is holding on to you. Anybody ever been there? Where you would have slipped, but like a grown-up walking with a toddler, every now and then they get to a place they don't see how to walk and they'll slip, but if you have their hand, you keep them from going down.

And you may have had the experience like I have. There have been times when my trials or my questions or my confusion would have taken me down, but God said, "I got you." And there are days when the Lord himself makes sure you don't go down. And Asaph said, "That happened to me. My feet almost slipped, I almost lost my foothold."

What was his particular challenge at that time? He said, "For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." He went through a season where he said, "Lord, I'm looking at these people who don't even honor you, and they seem to have it much better than I have it." Look at how he describes it. He says, "They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man. They are not plagued by human ills."

He said, "I'm looking at these people, they don't even walk with the Lord. They don't honor God." He said, "yet they're healthy and strong." He said, "I catch a cold when I get through with my cold, two weeks later I got the flu. After I get over the flu, next thing I know, the doctor's calling me in because they see something on my X-ray." And he said, "Meanwhile, I look at these people who don't even honor God, and they don't even sneeze."

He's confused by the prosperity of the wicked. He said they don't have burdens common to man. He said the stuff that just regular folk, just being human you go through, they don't even have what humans usually go through. He's looking at their prosperity. They don't have common problems. He said, "I'm looking at folk who don't have to worry about how ends meet."

He said, "Here I am a righteous man, but I go through seasons where God tests my faith, and I have to believe God, and I go through seasons of challenge where my ends aren't meeting. I'm just trying to get them close enough to talk to one another while I'm waiting on God." And meanwhile, I look over and somebody who doesn't even honor God, their ends are fellowshipping all the time. He said they don't even have human ills, things that just regular folk go through.

He says, "Therefore pride is their necklace. They clothe themselves with violence." He said, "They're violent and get away with it. They're proud and seem to get away with it." He said, "From their callous hearts comes iniquity. The evil conceits of their minds know no limits. They scoff, they speak with malice, in arrogance they threaten oppression."

"Their mouths lay claim to heaven, their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They say, 'How can God know? Does the most high have knowledge?'" He says these people seem to dishonor God. They're even scoffers. They're arrogant in their refusal to acknowledge God. And he said they seem to be prospering anyway.

He said, "This is what the wicked are like. They're carefree. They increase in wealth." And it caused him during this season to wonder aloud, "Does it pay off to walk with God?" He said in verse 13, "Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure. In vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I've been plagued. I've been punished every morning."

You ever go through a season where you say, "Lord, it doesn't look like it pays to do the right thing, to live for you. I've been walking with you for some time, Lord, and I'm now wondering, should I renegotiate this contract?" You ever been there? Now, come on, be honest. I know you got your big Bible, but be honest for a moment. You ever got to a season where you said, "Lord, it doesn't appear that I'm getting the upper hand for living right?" And he went through a season where he wasn't sure what was going on. He was confused.

In fact, down in verse 16, he said, "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me. But then he said, till I entered the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their final destiny." He said it took me getting into the presence of God to get my perspective right. You know, that's why you want to listen to the word. That's why I applaud you for putting yourself in a position where the word of God is spoken into your life because it is the word of God that will set our perspective in order.

God says if you look at it from your point of view, sometimes it's oppressive. Said but you got to understand, like the old folk used to say, "God sits high, but he looks low." And he knows what you're going through. And even when you don't understand what you're going through, God is the author of what is going on in your life, and he has promised to be the finisher of it.

And weeping may endure for a night, but joy is going to come in the morning. And when your night season is long, you need a sure word from God to hold on to. And that's why God gives us his word because there are persons throughout redemptive history who have gotten to those moments where they were confused by what God was doing or God was allowing in their lives. Such is the case here in John 11 where we're told that there are three persons who were special friends of Jesus. Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus.

These people weren't just casual acquaintances of our Lord. They were intimate friends. When I study the Gospels, I've concluded that Jesus had at least six people in his innermost circle. Peter, James, and John, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. These were people he not only knew, these were people he not only ministered to, these were people that he had a degree of real personal affection for.

Now we know Christ loved everyone. He ministered to strangers constantly. But although he loved everyone, he had a special relationship with a few people in his innermost circle, and these three are among them. These are the kind of people who could truly say, "Jesus is our close personal friend." Not "I met him one day, he healed me one day." A lot of people could say that. But these folk could say, "Jesus hangs out at our house sometimes." Talk about a bragging point!

If you lived in Jesus' day, for you to be able to say to folk, "I can't talk long, Jesus' coming over." Come on now, think about that. How bad is that? "Can't talk long, we having a Super Bowl party and Jesus'll be over." That's the kind of relationship they had. He could relax at their house. He could spend down time with them. He didn't have to be in savior mode. He didn't have to be preaching or teaching or healing at their house. He could just come over and eat and chill.

You need some folk in your life you don't have to play a role with all the time. You don't have to be on duty with all the time. You need some folk in your life you can just be who you are, you can feel how you feel. If you're tired, you can be tired around them. If you're a little raw that day, they know you, they can handle you being raw that day. See, you got some folk, whenever they see you raw, they got to start praying and get nervous. That's not the right crowd.

You need some folk who can just handle you like you are. Everybody needs that. You can't be on duty all the time. Got to have some people who nurture you, who fill you, who speak into your life, who give you permission to be who you are. You got to have that. There are some folk every now and then I used to go hang out with them on Monday nights, we'd watch Monday Night Football together, eat some food and enjoy.

And these brothers just love clowning and men get together and often when they really like one another, the camaraderie, you'd have to know them to know because they're always talking about one another and picking on one another. And I'd go hang out with the brothers sometimes, and they were all men of our church and so and I would hang out with them, and we had that kind of rapport where they knew on Monday night, I don't have to be your pastor, don't bring me no Scripture questions on Monday night.

I ain't trying to solve all your mysteries on Monday night. And I would hang out with them from time to time and just we'd mess around. And if it was a raw day because, you know, some Mondays I'm not sure I'm saved some Mondays. Now, let me not scare you. Don't take that literally. Just figuratively speaking, I know I'm saved, I got my theology straight, I know I'm saved by grace through faith, not of works, I got all that.

But if it were up to feelings, there's some days you don't necessarily feel it. And there's some Mondays they'd be pushing on me and messing with me and there was one Monday in particular I told one brother, I said, "I'm not sure I'm saved today, I think you want to back up off of me." I've been ministering all week and then preaching all weekend long and under spiritual attack. Today I just need to chill, so all bets are off. You need people in your life you can just be who you are and be where you are.

Those were the kind of people that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were for Jesus. So he loved them. Text tells us clearly he loved them in a special way. So a crisis arises in their life. Lazarus gets sick. He gets very sick. But the sisters really don't have a deep sense of panic early on, I'm sure, because after all, their best friend is Jesus. I mean, when your boy, when your best friend is a healer, exactly how panicked does sickness make you? See what I'm saying?

So they figure, no problem, let's just get the word to Jesus that Lazarus is sick, he'll come take care of this. They get a messenger. Tell the messenger find Jesus and tell him the one you love is sick. You know you close when they don't even have to call your name. They say, "Jesus, your boy is sick." And he knew exactly what the messenger would be talking about.

They send the messenger off and they think, the issue is we need to make Jesus aware of the problem, and we know based on who he is and based on how he feels about us, he will solve the problem. Imagine then how they felt when after sending the messenger off, later that day, Lazarus dies. Same day they send off for help, Lazarus dies.

How do I know that? Because when Jesus finally arrives, we're going to see that Lazarus was dead four days before Jesus shows up. And we're going to see that Jesus stayed where he was when he got the message. He said, "I'm staying here two more days." So wherever he was was a day's journey from Bethany.

Because he stayed two days and then he headed toward Bethany and he arrived on the fourth day, meaning he was a day's journey. So day one as the messenger comes to him, Lazarus dies. By the time the messenger gets to Jesus, Lazarus is already dead. Then Jesus says, "I'm staying here two more days." Days two and three. And then he heads toward Bethany and arrives on day four.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much for being with us today for Destined for Victory's message, When God Confuses You. It's always a pleasure to study God's word together. You know, the last thing Jesus told us to do was to go out and make disciples of all nations, and to get that job done, it takes all of us working together.

So right now, during the busy summer months when donations to the ministry tend to decline, we're asking all of our listening friends and partners to prayerfully consider making a generous donation to Destined for Victory. When you do, we'd love to send you our latest booklet, More Than Conquerors, as our way of saying thanks. You know, the Christian life is a victorious life that doesn't happen by accident.

It's your birthright, purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet so many believers live in defeat, selling their birthright for things worth far less. In More Than Conquerors, Pastor Paul Sheppard uses the unlikely story of Gideon to outline the path from defeat to victory. So if you want to understand how to take on a victor's identity and tear down the idols competing for your heart, you'll want to reserve your copy of this outstanding resource.

That's More Than Conquerors, yours this month for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. Give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. Again, 855-339-5500. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. And you can mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Paul Sheppard: Have you ever watched your prayer request die? Have you ever seen your heart's desire die? Have you ever reached a point of disappointment that was so great until it absolutely confused you? That's where those sisters are. They're sitting by Lazarus' bed and they see him die, Jesus nowhere to be found.

Guest (Male): Well, if you answered yes, you want to be here next time for our continuing message, When God Confuses You. But until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.